'Bout That LifeSýnishorn

SAME CALLING, DIFFERENT COMMITMENT

Jeremiah understood where discouragement comes from. Many times we think discouragement comes from our circumstances: when things go wrong and we feel out of control. Jeremiah clears it up for us in chapter 17 verse 9, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" In other words, even if everything is going well in our lives, discouragement can still creep in, because it comes from a place in our hearts that isn't healthy.

Our heads need to lead our hearts.

Commitment cannot come from our heart because our hearts are swayed and stray based on any little event that goes wrong in our lives. Commitment comes from somewhere much deeper. Just like anyone who's been married or done anything of significance can attest to, the heart doesn't always feel like committing everyday. It's not always easy to stay married, it's not always easy to stick it out in a job that's tough, and it's no walk in the park to lead your kids to live lives that aren't centered around themselves. But those are all worthwhile things. So how do we stay committed?

We pay attention to the voices we're hearing and the ones we're following. When our hearts screams quit, our head needs to scream back louder to keep going. And our head will only ever have the strength to do so when we're constantly in God's Word hearing His Promises for those who endure and gaining inspiration from those who went before us and endured until the end.

Practical Steps: Commit ahead of time to not give up in the area of life that seems hardest that God has called you to: make a commitment to Him that you'll stick it out, even when it gets impossible, and begin to trust Him to lead you by your head, not your heart.